Horan's 100th birthday marked at Knock

THE centenary of Monsignor James Horan's birth is to be celebrated this Saturday, April 30, and next week at Knock Shrine.[private] At 11 am a public lecture on The Life and Times of Msgr. Horan will be given by Professor Nollaig O Muraile  (Prof Noel Morley, a native of Wingfield, Knock) in St John's Rest and Care Centre. Then at 3 pm a commemorative Mass will be celebrated in the Basilica of Our Lady, Queen of Ireland by Archbishop Michael Neary. On Thursday, May 5 will be the  opening of a Msgr Horan Exhibition at the Knock Museum at 4.30 pm. James Horan was born at Partry, Co Mayo on May 5, 1911. He ministered at Knock Shrine/Parish for 23 years, from 1963 to 1986. He was 'a man in a hurry' and provided much of the present infrastructure at Knock Shrine. What is now Ireland West Airport, Knock is Msgr Horan's great legacy to Mayo and to the West of Ireland. He died suddenly while on pilgrimage at Lourdes on August 1, 1986 aged 75 and is buried beside the Basilica at Knock.[/private]